Ho-Hum Vote Wins

Beside Les Halles, the popular bistro Chez
Clovis.

Warning: Transport Strikes

Paris:- Sunday, 24. September 2000:- Starting
tomorrow, public transport will be affected by labor
actions in Paris and the Ile-de-France area. This is the
lead-up to a more general transport strike in Paris on
Tuesday, affecting both the métro and buses.

Discussions with the RATP began last Friday, and the
expected disruptions on Tuesday are not expected to be as
'total' as originally predicted. Two unions - the CFDT and
CFTC - might have lifted their strike warnings, while the
CGT and FO are said to be maintaining theirs. In Paris,
expect a 50% métro service.

SNCF operations on Thursday are expected to be hard-hit
because management is being stiffer with its unions. In the
Paris area, several RER lines, as well as long-distance
lines will be affected. Here, the big unions are in
alignment, and the smaller SUD-Rail even has issued an
unlimited strike warning.

For good measure, the CGT has also called for a big
demonstration on Thursday, to protest against the new
agreement between employers and unions, concerning
unemployment benefits.

France Wins Its Sunday
Referendum

Today the French voted massively in favor of reducing
the country's presidential term from a constitutional seven
years to five.

Tonight's TV-news at 20:00 was deprogrammed to another
time or dropped entirely in favor of an all-party
discussion about why the French did not vote 'en
masse.'

While no less than 69.4 percent of registered voters
stayed away from polling stations,
those who took the small effort to go to their local voting
centres were 73.1 percent in favor of the constitutional
change.

This change was proposed by former president
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing on 10. May. National
deputies and senators endorsed the change, but it was up to
President Chirac to decide how it was to be
accomplished.

He had the choice of calling a constitutional congress -
composed of deputies and senators, or having a national
referendum; to let the issue be decided by universal
suffrage.

In effect, the willingness of the assembly and the
senate had already decided the outcome - so voters sensed a
certain futility in calling for referendum.

Also the national vote seemed somewhat frivolous, with
the President - of the current minority party - and the
Prime Minister - of the
current majority party - both being in favor of the
measure.

The seven-year presidential term has been around in
France since 1873, and the election of the President has
been conducted by universal suffrage since 1962.

When this was proposed, and adopted by a referendum, it
was President Charles De Gaulle who actively campaigned for
it - even though he was risking his own mandate.

For today's election, today's politicians have been
responsible for the lack of public interest. Some party
leaders even actively supported abstentionism - some with
the argument that the question to be decided wasn't
sufficiently important.

It's like, 'everybody talks about democracy, but nobody
does anything about it.' During the three-week 'official'
campaign period, nobody could be heard to say what might be
the result of a reduced presidential term.

There were vague mentions of France acquiring a
'presidential system' or even going further to suggest that
the referendum would be the first step towards a 6th
Republic.

Politicians here are uncomfortable with what is called
'cohabitation,' which is the status when the country's
president is head of one party and the Prime Minister leads
another party - which happens to enjoy a majority of
elected members.

I think this is what is meant by the phrase
'presidential system.' Many politicians in France think it
very unnatural; even though it is perfectly
constitutional.

Maybe what is wrong with it is that it functions, as it
has been doing more or less harmoniously for the past
several years.

In order to be the majority party, the Socialists have
allied themselves with the Communists and 'Les Verts' - the
Greens - with members of these parties holding cabinet
positions, and active ones at that.

Meanwhile, the centre-right parties - including the
President's RPR - are still in considerable disarray; which
means they haven't been able to sustain the kind of
compromises that the Socialists have obtained.

At the moment, in France, all right-wing parties are
fragile. Alliances formed today fall apart tomorrow; and
dissidents quit, to form their own ever-smaller
parties.

Reducing the presidential term from five to seven years
may help the right-wing parties to focus on their primary
objective - to control both the presidency and the assembly
- but the result of today's balloting is no guarantee of
this.

Straw-Vote

Even if most voters did not bother casting ballots
today, polls indicated a 79 percent approval rating for the
reduction of the Presidential term. This was largely
vindicated by the actual voting results.